Pines Gets $2.8 Million From Gas Tax

May 21, 2006|By Joe Kollin Staff Writer

PEMBROKE PINES — Not all the money you pay at the pump goes into the bank accounts of big oil companies.

The city gets about $2.8 million as its share of the 10 cents per gallon in gas taxes that the Broward County Commission imposes. The money is used to pay for road repairs, shuttle buses and traffic signals.

The county splits the tax money with its 31 cities using a formula that includes population. The county keeps most of the money to spend on road and transportation projects.

"If we didn't receive gas tax dollars, we'd have to take the money for road improvements out of [property] taxes or postpone improvements," City Manager Charles F. Dodge said.

Dodge will include the latest estimates from the county in the 2006-2007 budget he expects to present to city commissioners in July.

The gas tax estimates are for the year that begins Oct. 1. If motorists buy less gas, the city and county would get less.

The $2.8 million Pembroke Pines expects is only $8,000, or 0.3 percent, more than it anticipates receiving during the current year. The increase is slight because it is based on a population increase of only 610, or 0.4 percent. The county gives this year's city's population as 151,045.

The 0.1 percent difference is because other cities have annexed unincorporated areas, which raises the populations of those cities and the amounts they get of each split.

The county's population is put at 1.7 million.

The 10-cent-per-gallon fee is made up of three separate taxes. The largest tax is 6 cents, imposed in 1988 and to be collected through 2018. The county keeps 62.5 percent of the money and splits the remaining 37.5 percent among the cities. Pembroke Pines will get 3.3 percent.

The city gets 4.4 percent of the 3-cent tax and 2.3 percent of the 1-cent tax. The county will keep about half the 3-cent tax and 74 percent of the penny tax. The penny tax must be used for public transportation, such as the city's shuttles. Both taxes expire in 2031.

Joe Kollin can be reached at jkollin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7913.